Celtics-Warriors Preview

By NOEY KUPCHANPosted Jan 25 2015 12:40PM

Klay Thompson has gotten used to playing in Stephen Curry's shadow, though he may have a hard time staying out of the spotlight now.

Thompson looks to build on a once-in-a-lifetime performance as the Golden State Warriors try to extend their franchise-record 18-game home winning streak Sunday night against the Boston Celtics.

Thompson dominated the headlines after putting together the highest-scoring quarter in NBA history, scoring 37 points in the third in Friday's 126-101 win over Sacramento. The fourth-year guard made all 13 shots - including nine from 3-point range - and both free throws during those 12 minutes, surpassing the 33-point mark set by George Gervin in 1978 and matched by Carmelo Anthony in 2008.

"I was one of the luckiest NBA players ever to play with Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and some of the greatest players ever," coach Steve Kerr said. "As many spectacular things as Michael did, which he did nightly, I never saw him do that.

"It was reminiscent of Michael, because it was sort of otherworldly."

Thompson, who also set the league record for most 3s in a quarter, finished with a career-high 52 points while shooting 16 of 25. He's averaging 22.6 points, just behind Curry's team-leading 22.8.

"It was kind of a blur. I wish I could go back and enjoy it some more, but moments like that go by really fast," said Thompson, who's scored 32.0 points per game over the last five. "You always dream about it, being a big-time scorer and a big-time player. It's crazy it's reality."

NBA-leading Golden State (35-6) is just the 10th team to win at least 35 games by the midway point. It's compiled a 20-1 home record after winning 18 in a row there by an average of 18.9 points.

The Warriors lead the league with 111.1 points per game and 114.8 at home. They are 13-0 against Eastern Conference foes.

That doesn't bode well for the Celtics (15-26), who are seeking a season best-tying third consecutive victory. Boston had dropped 24 consecutive road games against the West before squeaking by Portland 90-89 on Thursday and Denver 100-99 on Friday.

"It's great from a progress standpoint," coach Brad Stevens said. "Hopefully you can build off this. ... They're both close games, they're one-point games. They both came down to the last shot. As history suggests, this is a difficult game to get on the second of a back-to-back."

Avery Bradley scored eight of his 18 points over the final 3:29 against the Nuggets while Brandon Bass finished with 17. Bradley has scored at least 17 in six of the last seven road games.

Kelly Olynyk was sent back home to have his badly sprained right ankle examined, leaving the Celtics without their third leading scorer at 11.1 points per game. Boston will also be without rookie Marcus Smart due to a death in his family.

Golden State took both matchups against the Celtics last season. Curry made a tiebreaking jumper with 4 seconds left in a 99-97 home victory Jan. 10, and the Warriors easily won 108-88 in Boston on March 5.

The Celtics have dropped 14 of their last 18 visits to the Bay Area.

Curry is averaging 15.0 points in eight career games in the series, his lowest mark against any team. Thompson is averaging 15.8 on 38.3 percent shooting in the last four meetings.

Copyright 2015 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Curry leads Warriors to 19th straight home win

By MICHAEL WAGAMANPosted Jan 25 2015 11:52PM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Golden State coach Steve Kerr figured his team was due for an off night after four consecutive blowout wins.

Fortunately for the Warriors, it happened at Oracle Arena, where they haven't lost in more than two months.

"This is the point in the schedule where it gets really difficult to get up emotionally night after night," Kerr said. "For the most part we did our job. We just didn't have a lot of life and legs. It was a night where everybody had to fight through."

The Warriors have won 19 consecutive home games for the longest active home streak in the NBA. Their last loss at Oracle was 113-100 to San Antonio on Nov. 11.

Having that advantage was helpful against Boston.

The Celtics trailed by 10 with 36.3 seconds remaining but closed to 112-109 on Jared Sullinger's layup with 4.6 seconds left.

Thompson, who scored a career-high 52 points against Sacramento on Friday, calmly made two free throws to seal the win.

Andrew Bogut added 13 points and 13 rebounds and Draymond Green had 14 points to help the Warriors to stay unbeaten in 14 games against the Eastern Conference this season. Golden State also improved its NBA-best record to 36-6.

The Warriors had won their previous four games by an average of 26.5 points and maintained a double-digit lead against the Celtics for most of the game until Boston made its late run.

"Now we've got some things to address in practice," Bogut said. "The end-of-game execution wasn't great. We made some bonehead plays the last three or four minutes and let them back into the game."

Sullinger had 26 points and nine rebounds for Boston. The Celtics have lost four of six.

"I thought we did as good a job as you can do probably in half court," Boston coach Brad Stevens said. "We gave ourselves a chance a lot of the time ... but it's hard to guard them for 48 minutes and score on them."

Two nights after scoring an NBA-record 37 points in the third quarter of Golden State's 126-101 win over Sacramento, Thompson was 11 for 19 from the field and 6 for 8 at the line. He had 18 points in the second half.

Curry helped the Warriors keep rolling with his 15th double-double this season.

The leading vote-getter for the All-Star game, Curry scored nine points in the third quarter and had two momentum-shifting plays. The diminutive point guard scored on a baseline dunk and did a pull-up on the rim, and then made a behind-the-back pass to Andre Iguodala for an easy layup.

The Celtics trailed by as much as 10 in the second quarter but closed to 51-49 on back-to-back buckets by Tyler Zeller.

Curry sank two free throws with 7.8 seconds left, and then got three more a few moments later when he tried to beat the buzzer and was fouled by James Young near midcourt. Curry made all three to put the Warriors up 56-49 at the break.

---

FREE THROW WOES

Stevens insists he's not worried about Boston's free throw shooting, even though the team is struggling at the line. The Celtics made 19 of 27 foul shots and are shooting just 68.3 percent (56 of 82) from the line over their past four games.

"I will not lose one ounce of sleep on free throw shooting," Stevens said. "That stuff works itself out with good shooters and it doesn't with guys who aren't good shooters."

TIP-INS

Celtics: F Kelly Olynyk missed his second consecutive game with a sprained right ankle. ... Boston is still one win shy of 200 against the Warriors. ... Marcus Smart did not attend the game due to personal reasons.

Warriors: Thompson needs 24 3-pointers to move into second place on the team's career chart behind Curry. Thompson has made 677 3s. ... The Warriors are the first team to go 14-0 against the East since the 1971-72 Lakers won their first 19.

UP NEXT

Celtics: At Utah on Monday.

Warriors: Host Chicago on Tuesday.

Copyright 2015 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited